Chrysler moves past Caliber production glitch

By Kevin Krolicki

DETROIT (Reuters) - DaimlerChrysler AG's DCXGn.DE Chrysler Group has ramped up to full production at the plant that makes its Caliber hatchback, overcoming a glitch that had limited sales of its hottest-selling new car, the company's manufacturing chief said on Wednesday.

Chrysler's Belvidere, Illinois, assembly plant, which makes the Dodge Caliber and the Jeep Compass, had been hit by a software problem that caused the facility's robots to crash into each other, slowing production of the Caliber in its first months on the market.

At the Reuters Autos Summit in Detroit, Chrysler Group Executive Vice President Frank Ewasyshyn said the plant had reached its full potential output on the previous shift on Wednesday for the first time.

"We hit full rate, full volume on the third shift wide open," Ewasyshyn said. "(It's) the first time we've hit the whole thing wide open, so we're happy with that."

Chrysler has sold almost 60,000 Calibers since the launch of the hatchback in February, making it one of the best-selling American-made small cars this year.

The car, which starts at just under $14,000, has been marketed as a more stylish and feature-laden alternative to the fuel-efficient "econo-box" small cars that U.S. consumers turned away from in the 1980s.

Dealers have reported difficulty getting enough inventory of Caliber, which marks the first attempt by one of the traditional Big Three to take on the Japanese-dominated small-car market with a vehicle made in the United States.

Ewasyshyn said the problem at Belvidere had been in programming the software to run the industrial robots supplied by Swiss engineering firm ABB. (ABBN.VX: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz)  Continued...